At first glance, Adrienne Rich\u2019s poem \u201cDiving into the Wreck\u201d tells a story of a person in the ocean, surrounded by a ladder, and enveloped within their equipment. While this rendition is quite literal, I ultimately believe that the poem is metaphorical, and that the \u2018wreck\u2019 can be synonymous to the past and its’ aftermath on the speaker. Other than the title itself, the first instance where \u2018wreck\u2019 is mentioned by Rich is in the sixth stanza. She states,
\n\u201cI came to explore the wreck.
\nThe words are purposes.
\nThe words are maps.
\nI came to see the damage that was done
\nand the treasures that prevail.
\nI stroke the beam of my lamp
\nslowly along the flank
\nof something more permanent
\nthan fish or weed\u201d (102).
\nIn this specific excerpt from the poem, the reader is able to identify the speaker\u2019s desires and that this \u2018exploration\u2019 was not forced upon themself, but rather chosen. Through the word choice and repetition of \u201cI came to\u2026\u201d, Rich shows the speaker as willing to embark on this \u2018dive within the ocean\u2019. Following this phrase are verbs, such as \u201cexplore\u201d and \u201csee\u201d, which display the reader\u2019s ambition and eagerness to come in contact with things that may not be so pleasant. By pairing the verbs with this common phrase, there is a sense of irony. Why would the speaker want to \u201cexplore the wreck\u201d? Why would the speaker come to \u201csee the damage that was done\u201d? I believe that the answer to these questions is within the next line, \u201cand the treasures that prevail\u201d. The wreck, being synonymous to the past, would allow for the speaker to make reflections upon their actions. Thus, \u201ctreasures\u201d would then be available, and this past reflection would force the speaker to grow (in terms of how they dealt with certain experiences).
\nIn the following stanza, Rich furthers the idea of the \u2018wreck\u2019 being the speakers\u2019 past experiences. She explains,
\n\u201cthe thing I came for:
\nthe wreck and not the story of the wreck
\nthe thing itself and not the myth
\nthe drowned face always staring
\ntoward the sun
\nthe evidence of damage
\nworn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty\u201d (102).
\nRich begins the stanza by preparing the reader for an overarching idea of why the speaker \u2018dove into the wreck\u2019. She starts with, \u201cthe wreck and not the story of the wreck, the thing of itself and not the myth\u201d. If the reader were to assume that the \u2018wreck\u2019 means the speaker\u2019s past, then the disregard for the story of the past only heightens the speaker\u2019s distaste for being stuck within the past. The speaker ultimately wants to use this \u2018wreck\u2019 as a learning experience and not dwell. Rich continues this idea by stating,
\n\u201cthe drowning face always staring
\ntoward the sun
\nthe evidence of damage
\nworn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty\u201d (102).\u00a0Through the metaphor of \u201cthe drowning face always staring\u201d, the reader can infer that the past is always lingering. By positioning the face \u201ctowards the sun\u201d, this demonstrates how the speaker has the ability to use the past to their advantage. However, this has not been done yet and the reader can assume through Rich\u2019s explanation of this image, being \u201cthe evidence of damage\u201d. Rich\u2019s choice of words and imagery-rich style of writing allows the reader to infer that the speaker is referencing their life and the hardships they may face within \u2018the ocean\u2019. Even so, there is a sense of desire and eagerness of the speaker towards their past, and essentially utilizing such for their personal growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At first glance, Adrienne Rich\u2019s poem \u201cDiving into the Wreck\u201d tells a story of a person in the ocean, surrounded by a ladder, and enveloped within their equipment. While this rendition is quite literal, I ultimately believe that the poem is metaphorical, and that the \u2018wreck\u2019 can be synonymous to the past and its’ aftermath … Continue reading The Past and Suffering within “Diving into the Wreck”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4635,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4635"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}